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obervation

The losses are not easy to take, I've been thru this myself, this year and past years.
I only say the following as my opinion and obsevation.

Even if we are lossing hives we still need to deliver a quality product, as advertised, to the grower. If the contact is for 6 frames that what should be delivered.

Unfortunatally some of those hive that were empty and should have stayed at the holding yard were delivered to pollination contacts, I do encourage the growers to check the hives to confirm what they are paying for.

I looked at 4 sets of 24 hives each and you would be pushing a 2 frame ave. with multiple hives having no queen or a fist full of bees from the unnamed large beek in the lost hills region.

I hope together we find a method to win against what ever is killing the bees.

Maryam, the woman who wrote the piece, was in Arizona for the organic meeting this past weekend. She was interviewing people for her documentary about the vanishing bees. She needs money to finish the project, in case anyone wants to help out.

BarryW,
Kim stated that two major queen producers retired, do you or anyone else know who they are.
I am small compared to some of these keepers, but none the less I have invested what I consider major money in this business; and I am concerned. I suspect everyone on this list is as they should bee.
Frank

Did they retire and just burn the equipment? What does "retire" mean. It means nothing if they retired but yet passed on or sold the business. Didn't a major company in Hawaii sell out and the owners retired? (OHB bought them) But that could hardly fit into the "loss of 75,000 queens that will now NOT be produced". So the article (from MichaelW) suggests that two queen producers retired and their entire operation now is no longer in existence. Not sold, not passed onto anyone....just gone from the face of the earth. I'd be interested in knowing the details of why they retired in the manner the story suggests.

I had a hard time reading the article. Not just because it describes a saddening situation, but because it isn't very well written. I know that Kim wrote the article after his rather traumatic experience, so perhaps that is why he wrote it with a jumble of sporadic thoughts.

I respect Flottum's experience and expertise in beekeeping, however, as an editor of Bee Culture I would think that the articles which he writes should have some semblance of order. I can't stand trying to read about something as important as CCD, and having to reread it in order to make sense of the story. Perhaps Flottum should take some journalism classes.

Examples abound: The lead is a run-on sentence. I think that the editor forgot to place a period in the middle of the lead. Holocaust - did they burn the bees? Mass exodus - ambiguous - an exodus is a mass departure.
"There was no food for the bees, nothing to forage" - Repeat - if there was no food, I guess logically there would be no forage.

“Beekeepers are not activists, they’re just going to quietly slip away,”. What a judgmental statement. Apparently the beekeeper that was quoted hasn't logged onto BeeSource to see that we aren't going to slip away without a fight.

Maryam Henein wrote the article, not Kim Flottum. But I tend to agree. I thought, too, that it was poorly written. It certainly didn't seem to fit a logical pattern of organization. And the details were largely lacking. I was left with the impression that the unnamed beekeeper lost 40,000 hives, but I wonder if that's true?

As far as the beekeeper's statement about not being activists, I think he's probably right. He said it, it was quoted and "attributed" to, well, an anonymous beekeeper, but it is a direct quotation. Likely others have similar thoughts. Whether or not you agree is a matter of opinion.

But I haven't seen much in the way of "activism" or "advocating" when it comes to CCD. So far as I know, beekeepers are reluctant to admit losses (as demonstrated by the removal of names from the story), federal funding for research is negligible, and beekeepers have not put up money to fund continuing research on CCD.

You're correct, Kieck. I noticed Flottum's name in the banner at the top of the page, missed the byline by Henein, and attributed the article to Flottum. My apologies to Kim. But, as an editor, he should ask for a complete rewrite.

I think that the events surrounding CCD are so new, and so mysterious that beekeepers have gotten into the push-pull strategy of tug-of-war with the situation. There has to be some sort of accountability, and understandably, "names have been changed to protect the innocent". Sort of like the analogy where cockroaches have ravaged an apartment building, exterminators are called in to spray apartment after apartment, but the critters keep coming back. Well, there is one holdout renter who doesn't call the exterminator, because she has a "clean" apartment, and might be embarrassed to admit that they are taking up residence in her place.

Maybe we'd get further in the fight if beekeepers assessed and reported their specific hive management practices. Then we might find one or more common denominators.

Sure, and that makes sense to me. But that doesn't mesh with "activism" or "advocating change" to my way of thinking. It does seem to fit the "slip-quietly-away" model, in my opinion.

I can certainly understand beekeepers not wanting their names associated specifically with CCD. But sooner or later we (beekeepers) will have to fish or cut bait. Either we step forward and try to reach some conclusions about the problem, or we continue to deny that "I" have a problem (but "you" might) and wind up fading away.

I returned a phone call monday to one of last years large CCD victims, who was riding thru that staging area and taking pictures ,while on the phone.
You could sense the sickness in his voice from seeing thousands of empty hives setting there,which he said was mind blowing.
I'm told that the "beekeeper" with the loses is bidding high for any extra bees available to try and fill contracts.

Ah the wonders of technology and the cache. Looks like Kim edited more than just names. I say he did about as good as you can with the original piece without completely rewriting it. An editor shouldn't rewrite. He could have not posted the piece, but its still important information thats not going to get out otherwise. Until the USDA puts out the promised money into this problem, all we'll have is random investigations whenever someone can squeeze some funds, have a convenient opportunity, or be looking for some other opportunity out of the situation like making a movie about it. To quote Jim Fisher's article last spring,
“The skilled experts who support
beekeeping have been victims of
a ‘Disappearing Disease’ of their
own. The cause of this disease
is clear – no one gave a ****
about bees.”

If the USDA follows through, I see bee science never getting back to
the shape it is. With money you can bring in more money, but its
critical to give the needed boost.

I think I am SICK!!!!!

I have been on the phone for over the last 2 hours.
I had no idea that this CCD deal is worse this year than last year.
When it is all said & done there will be at least 150K hives short in the almonds.
Every one has the same story.
Looked good up north, loaded them on the truck & now they ar almost all dead in CA.
This is from beeks from all across the country.
Just talked with one of my queen people.
He is down in Mexico putting on patties.
50% winter loss in the last 4 weeks.
This is just nuts.
Won't be a good nites sleep tonite.
And yes the story abot the " Big Guy " losses are true!